YouTube Updates Process for Reporting Copyright Violations

YouTube is updating the way it handles manual copyright claims with changes that should make them much less of a headache for video creators. Owners of copyrighted content — like a record label or a movie studio — will now have to say exactly where in a video their copyrighted material appears, which they didn’t have to do in the past when manually reporting infringement.

Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple to Testify at 'Market Power' Hearing

Representatives of four huge U.S. technology companies will testify next week at a hearing on “online platforms and market power,” the House antitrust subcommittee said. The hearing will be an early flashpoint in what is shaping up to be a yearslong, high-stakes debate in Washington about if, and how, to limit the reach and influence of tech giants over markets and Americans’ personal lives.

European Privacy Regulators Scrutinize Online Ad Targeting

Privacy regulators in Europe are beginning to scrutinize a process known as “real-time bidding,” through which tens of billions of dollars flow from advertisers annually around the world. The U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office, the country’s data-protection authority, said real-time ad auctions violate the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which took effect last year. Such auctions involve the collection and distribution of sensitive information about users — including race, sexuality, health status or political leaning — without their explicit consent, the regulator said in a report last month.

UK Plans to Fine Marriott $123 Million for Breach of Starwood Guest Database

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) intends to impose a fine of $123,705,870 on international hotel chain Marriott for last year's data breach. In November 2018, Marriott disclosed that hackers accessed the Starwood guest reservation database since 2014. Initially, the company said hackers stole the details of roughly 500 million hotel guests, a number which the hotel chain later corrected to 383 million following a more thorough investigation.

Appeals Court Upholds Ruling Banning Trump from Blocking Twitter Followers

President Trump cannot block his critics from the Twitter feed he regularly uses to communicate with the public, a federal appeals court said, in a case with implications for how elected officials nationwide interact with constituents on social media. The decision from the New York-based appeals court upholds an earlier ruling that Trump violated the First Amendment when he blocked individual users who were critical of the president or his policies.

Twitter's New Guidelines Back Off Efforts to Ban Dehumanizing Speech

The scaling back of Twitter’s efforts to define dehumanizing speech illustrates the company’s challenges as it sorts through what to allow on its platform. While the new guidelines help it draw starker lines around what it will and will not tolerate, it took Twitter nearly a year to put together the rules — and even then they are just a fraction of the policy that it originally said it intended to create.

China's Central Bank Says Facebook's Cryptocurrency Must Be Supervised

Facebook Inc.’s push to create its own cryptocurrency, called Libra, must be put under the oversight of monetary authorities, according to a senior official from China’s central bank. As a convertible crypto asset or a type of stablecoin, Libra can flow freely across borders, and it “won’t be sustainable without the support and supervision of central banks,” Mu Changchun, deputy director of the People’s Bank of China’s payments department, wrote in comments provided to Bloomberg.

White House Excludes Facebook, Twitter from Social Media Summit

The White House has not extended invitations to Facebook and Twitter to attend its social media summit, people familiar with the matter said. The people, who spoke to CNN Business on the condition of anonymity, suggested it was not surprising. They said they believe the summit would amount to a right-wing grievance session and was not aimed at seriously discussing some of the issues facing large technology companies.

  • Read the article: CNN

EU Effort to Combat Election Interference Risks Becoming Defunct Quickly

The European Union launched an ambitious effort earlier this year to combat election interference: an early-warning system that would sound alarms about Russian propaganda. Despite high expectations, however, records show that the system has become a repository for a mishmash of information, produced no alerts and is already at risk of becoming defunct.

Google Suspends Email Alert System in New Zealand After Murder Case Disclosure

Google has suspended an email alerting system in New Zealand following criticism by the government for publishing suppressed details of a murder case, the company said. The suspension of the service comes as the Alphabet-owned giant and its peers, such as Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc, as well as governments around the world, wrestle with the question of responsibility for the content published on the platforms.

U.K. Competition Watchdog Probes Amazon's Purchase of Deliveroo

The U.K. competition watchdog launched an investigation into Amazon’s purchase of a large stake in food delivery service Deliveroo, a move that suggests authorities are taking a harder line on the expansion of Big Tech. While the deal had not been billed as a takeover by Amazon, the Competition and Markets Authority said it has “reasonable grounds for suspecting” that the agreement could “result in Amazon and Deliveroo ceasing to be distinct.”

Appeals Court Says Amazon Can Face Liability for Defective Products

A federal appeals court ruled against Amazon.com Inc. in a case that could expose the online retailer to lawsuits from customers who buy defective products from third-party vendors through its website. Numerous other courts, including two federal appeals courts, have held that Amazon cannot be held liable as a seller of products from third-party vendors.

Foreigners in Parts of China Forced to Install Malware on Their Phones

Foreigners crossing certain Chinese borders into the Xinjiang region, where authorities are conducting a massive campaign of surveillance and oppression against the local Muslim population, are being forced to install a piece of malware on their phones that gives all of their text messages as well as other pieces of data to the authorities, a collaboration by Motherboard, Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Guardian, the New York Times, and the German public broadcaster NDR has found.

  • Read the article: Vice

After Hacking, Maker of License-Plate Scanners Suspended by Customs

The longtime maker of license-plate scanners and other surveillance equipment used along the U.S. border was suspended from federal contracting by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, who cited “evidence of conduct indicating a lack of business honesty or integrity,” federal records show. The rare punishment temporarily prevents the longtime contractor, Perceptics, from doing business with the federal government and could land the company on a years-long government blacklist.

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The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.